widmevswiseTell them apart

Quick tell: widme is a verb, wise is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“widme” is a verb and “wise” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#37,308
“widme” frequency rank
#35,561
“wise” frequency rank
72869
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature widme wise
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs widmen weise, klug

Where the eye mixes widme and wise

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
widme
4 ch
wise

Visual trap between widme and wise

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: widme is [ˈvɪtmə] while wise is [waɪz]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72869, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

widme is recorded at frequency rank #37,308, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈvɪtmə]. wise is at rank #35,561, tagged as anadj, pronounced [waɪz].

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 72869, this pair ranks #376,280 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of widme vs wise

Shared letters: eiw. Private to "widme": dm. Private to "wise": s.

"widme" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "wise" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • widmeiwdme · wdime · widdme · widem · widmme · wimde · wwidme
  • wiseiwse · wsie · wwise

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "widme" and "wise" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "widme" is a verb and "wise" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "widme" or "wise" show up more?
"wise" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,561 in our German list, against #37,308 for "widme". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "widme" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "wise" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #376,280 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "widme" and "wise" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "waste vs wise". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #376,280 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list